Church leaders praise report

VISTA -- North Coast Church leaders have some advice for those
who oppose their plans to build a mega-church on 40-plus acres in
northern Vista -- be careful what you wish for.

An environmental report has concluded that the combination of a
new shopping center and houses would generate 13,088 car trips per
day, more than twice the projection of 5,760 per day for the
proposed church-school complex.

The traffic analysis prompted five church representatives to
praise the report in front of the Planning Commission, which was
gathering public comments on the issue during its regular meeting
Tuesday night.

A local environmental group that was formed to protest the
church's construction contends that the project would hurt the
surrounding environment and urbanize the neighborhood.

Church leaders said better them than someone else.

"(A shopping center is) twice the average weekday daily traffic
than the church," said John Mattox, the project's architect and
church member. "That's straight from the (environmental
report)."

Moreover, Mattox said, the church's plans feature pleasing
aesthetics, including leaving 30 percent of the site as greenery,
creating a horse trail along Guajome Lake Road, building the
buildings at least 50 feet to 300 feet away from the roads,
designing the site so that 40 percent of the parking lots are
obstructed from view, and retaining a small area as some sort of
wetland preserve.

Church leaders also contend that the project will improve the
site's current look, which includes an old surface mine and
trucking business.

The site is at the northwest corner of North Santa Fe Avenue and
Osbourne Street. Church officials have been eyeing the 40.6-acre
lot just north of Guajome Regional Park for about four years.

Church leaders have said they want to move from their smaller
site on North Melrose Drive to the larger site to ease overcrowding
for their growing congregation.

Plans call for a 100,000-square-foot building with 950 parking
spots to be built in the first 18 months. Then, as the congregation
grew, church officials would continue to add buildings, classrooms,
administrative offices and parking, according to the report.
Eventually, the church campus would total nine buildings and
365,000 square feet.

Church officials received the official OK from the City Council
to build the church in July 2001. Shortly thereafter, nearby
residents protested and banded together to create the Guajome
Alliance for Responsible Development.

Alliance members filed a lawsuit, forcing the church to
commission the same environmental report church leaders praised
Tuesday evening.

The report, released in November, found that if the church is
built, traffic will increase at seven nearby signals, major road
improvements would be needed, and the neighborhood will become more
urbanized.

North Coast's executive pastor Charlie Bradshaw said the church
will meet stipulations and regulations called for in the report to
ease environmental effects.

Members of the Guajome Alliance did not address the commission
Tuesday night.

"We didn't feel we needed to be there … this is just the draft,
it's not the final report," said alliance President Joyce
Halliburton. "We don't agree with the project as it stands and we
will respond to the (report in writing)."